Hour of Code with Tynker

Teacher's Guide

Welcome to Tynker's Hour of Code! We are excited to share our tutorials with you. We’ve built a series of game and puzzle based programming activities, appropriate for beginner (grades 1 to 3) and intermediate (grades 4 to 8) level students, that teachers and parents can use to introduce computer programming to children.

Tynker is currently used by over 3,500 schools and offers a standards compliant computer science curriculum for grades 3-8. Tynker’s online programming courses are used by thousands of students worldwide to get a fun, self-paced introduction to computer programming.

Setup is as easy as 1-2-3!

New teachers welcome! You can easily set up a classroom on Tynker and and set up for the Hour-of-Code in these 3 simple steps:

Existing teachers

Please log in to your accounts and add the Hour-of-Code lessons to your Tynker class rooms using the “Add Lessons” option in the Lesson Plan tab of your classroom, and you should be all set.

Adding Student Accounts

There are three ways to set up student accounts on Tynker. Log in to Tynker and select the classroom on the “My Classes” dashboard under the “Classroom” Tab. In the "Student Management" you'll see an orange button that says "Add Students." This allows you to add students to your classroom.

Some schools issue Google accounts to students If your students have Gmail accounts already, send them this link http://www.tynker.com/school and ask them to sign in using Google. They will be prompted to enter their class ID, which you can provide them. It can be found at the top left-hand corner of the “Student Management” tab for each classroom you create.

You can also sign your students up for direct accounts with Tynker. Just enter their name and we'll assign them a username and password.

Alternatively, you can upload a CSV file with the students you want to import. The first row should be the labels for the subsequent rows. Use "first name" for the first name, "last name" for the last name, "username" for a desired username or email, "password" for desired password. If a user name is unavailable, the system will create an alternate one.

If you run into any issues we’re here to help - please send an email to support@tynker.com

Math Art — an Intermediate tutorial to learn how to program to draw shapes.

15 block Challenge — a free play activity to spur creative juices.

What do these tutorials teach?

The puzzles are designed to teach students the basics of computer programming such as sequencing, repetition, and conditional logic. Students solve each puzzle by connecting visual code blocks to achieve a goal.

Tynker’s Hour of Code tutorials introduce the following concepts and ideas to children

Name

Description

Sequencing

Break down a problem into a series of ordered steps to achieve a goal.

Loops and Repetition

Use a “loop” construct to repeat instructions. There are many kinds of loops - such as those that repeat a certain number of times; those that repeat until a certain condition is reached.

Conditional Logic

Use an “if” construct to handle logic during programming. Perform one set of commands if a certain condition is true, and another set of commands if the condition is false.

Math Art

Program a turtle to move using simple commands such as “move forward”, “move backward” or “turn” a certain angle. Draw complex shapes and patterns using these commands in conjunction with loops, sequencing and conditional logic.

Programming is a creative activity

Using a given set of commands, build a web app and publish it. Use the free play activities such as Puppy Play Time, Math Art or the Space Zombies game to use the given building blocks and create your own projects.

Repeats the blocks in this "Repeat" block 9 times. The "Repeat" block is useful when you want to run the same code again and again. You can connect the "Run" and "Jump" blocks inside it. You can also change the number of times you want to repeat the code.

Repeat the blocks in this "repeat until" until the Actor reaches the Goal. The "repeat until" block is useful when you want to run the same code again and again until the goal is reached. You can connect the "Run" and "Jump" blocks inside it.

Repeat the blocks in this "repeat while" while the Actor has not reached the Goal. The "repeat while" block is useful when you want to run the same code again and again while a condition is true. You can connect the "Run" and "Jump" blocks inside it.

Repeat the blocks in this "repeat while" until Pixel reaches the baseball cap. The "repeat while" block is useful when you want to run the same code again and again while a condition is true. You can connect the "Run" and "Jump" blocks inside it.

Answer Key: Space Zombies

Space Zombies is a game that students build as a guided tutorial. In the second part, students can skin this game with different backgrounds, characters, music and also change the parameters of the game. They can save this and share with friends and family.

Puppy Play Time is a free play activity where students program Pixel the puppy to move up/down/left/right using the arrow keys and explore the backyard to uncover the interactive objects.

Math Art is a free play activity where students program Snap the turtle to draw geometric shapes.

15 Block Challenge What is the coolest project that you can create using these 15 blocks? You can use each blocks as many times as you want. There are several backgrounds already in the project that you can change by using "Next Scene". You can also change the main actor to a lion or an alien by using the "Next Costume" block.